Final Word on Ethanol's Efficiency as Vehicle Fuel

A study by the University of California at Berkeley says that use of ethanol as a transportation fuel offers a positive life cycle energy balance, while producing slightly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than petroleum fuel use. Dan Kammen and Alex Farrell of the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the UC Berkeley published their research in the journal Science. While earlier studies suggested that the energy to produce ethanol was greater than the actual energy content of ethanol, this overview work argues that those assertions were incorrect. The ERG research report also noted that most ethanol today is produced through corn and, as such, the subsequent greenhouse gas emissions thought to cause global warming are only marginally cut. That will change, however, when such non sugar feedstock sources as switchgrass are put to use on a large scale, supplanting corn.

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